Fiber optic virtual sensing system and method

ABSTRACT

In some examples, fiber optic virtual sensing may include generating, by a virtual sensor generator that is operatively connected to a device under test (DUT), at least one virtual sensor along the DUT. A DUT interrogator may be operatively connected to the DUT to transmit a stimulus optical signal into the DUT. The DUT interrogator may analyze reflected light resulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal. The DUT interrogator may determine, based on the analysis of the reflected light, an attribute of the DUT sensed by the at least one virtual sensor.

PRIORITY

The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) toEuropean patent application number 19305460.8, having a filing date ofApr. 9, 2019, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

A fiber optic cable may include one or more optical fibers. The opticalfibers may transmit light from a source to a destination. Thetransmitted light may be backscattered and reflected. The backscatteredand reflected light may be analyzed to determine properties of theoptical fibers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Features of the present disclosure are illustrated by way of example andnot limited in the following figure(s), in which like numerals indicatelike elements, in which:

FIG. 1A illustrates an operational layout of a fiber optic virtualsensing system in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 1B illustrates further details of an operational layout of thefiber optic virtual sensing system of FIG. 1A in accordance with anexample of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a linear sensor array configuration where multipleindependent measuring sensors are deployed in a geometric pattern tocover a full length of a sensing path to illustrate operation of thefiber optic virtual sensing system of FIG. 1A in accordance with anexample of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a simplified architecture of a device under test(DUT) interrogator of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of FIG. 1Ain accordance with an example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates deployment of virtual sensors to illustrate operationof the fiber optic virtual sensing system of FIG. 1A in accordance withan example of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate application in a telecommunications domain toillustrate operation of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of FIG.1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates different types of sensors to illustrate operation ofthe fiber optic virtual sensing system of FIG. 1A in accordance with anexample of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates an application on a telecommunications network thatinterconnects multiple equipment by fiber links to illustrate operationof the fiber optic virtual sensing system of FIG. 1A in accordance withan example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8A illustrates a physical and hardware approach, and FIG. 8Billustrates an application oriented approach to illustrate operation ofthe fiber optic virtual sensing system of FIG. 1A in accordance with anexample of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a graphical user interface display to generatevirtual sensors to illustrate operation of the fiber optic virtualsensing system of FIG. 1A in accordance with an example of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for fiber opticvirtual sensing in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;and

FIG. 11 illustrates a computer system, according to an example of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the present disclosure isdescribed by referring mainly to examples. In the following description,numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present disclosure. It will be readily apparenthowever, that the present disclosure may be practiced without limitationto these specific details. In other instances, some methods andstructures have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarilyobscure the present disclosure.

Throughout the present disclosure, the terms “a” and “an” are intendedto denote at least one of a particular element. As used herein, the term“includes” means includes but not limited to, the term “including” meansincluding but not limited to. The term “based on” means based at leastin part on.

Fiber optic virtual sensing systems, and methods for fiber optic virtualsensing are disclosed herein. The systems and methods disclosed hereinprovide for the configuration of a physical location of a measurementarea of a plurality of virtual sensors along an optical fiber formeasuring physical parameters of interest, such as optical loss, based,for example, on fiber optic reflectometry measurement.

With respect to an infrastructures, such as an Internet of Things (IoT)infrastructure, such an infrastructure may include objects equipped withsensors, actuators, and processors that communicate with each other toserve a meaningful purpose. Such an infrastructure may process and reactto physical and virtual information. Through data collection andanalysis, such an infrastructure may achieve a multitude of outcomesthat may provide for improvement of user experience or the performanceof devices and systems. In this regard, when a plurality of sensors hasto be installed to cover an entire area that is to be sensed, forexample, for an IoT infrastructure, it is technically challenging todeploy individual sensors at key locations without risking missing anevent.

The systems and methods disclosed herein address at least theaforementioned technical challenges by implementing virtual sensors thatmay be associated with other types of connected objects, sensors,hybrids, real connected objects, as well as test, measurement, andmonitoring probes or instruments. The systems and methods disclosedherein may provide for access of data, as well as configuration of thesevirtual sensors as to an entire network of connected objects.

According to examples disclosed herein, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may eliminate the need for manual intervention withrespect to maintenance operations or reconfiguration of sensors that areused to monitor a specified area.

According to examples disclosed herein, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may implement optical fiber reflectometry by utilizinga backscattering signal along an optical fiber to extract values ofdifferent measurements such as optical attenuation of all or part of afiber link. Examples of other values that may be extracted may includetemperature, mechanical stress, as well as detection of an acoustic waveat different points of an optical fiber.

According to examples disclosed herein, for the systems and methodsdisclosed herein, Internet of Things (IoT) distributed reflectometry(IoT-DR) may be used to create virtual instruments or systems that maybe positioned at different locations on a device under test (DUT) tomeasure several physical parameters of the DUT. In addition todistributed loss and return loss measurement, and based on opticalreflectometry (e.g., Rayleigh, Raman, or Brillouin), the systems andmethods disclosed herein may extend to the distributed measurement ofmultiple parameters such as temperature, elongation of a DUT, acousticsignals, and radiation measurements.

According to examples disclosed herein, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may be compatible with the IoT in terms of connectivityusing wireless networks, such as a 5G network, or fiber-only end-to-endsolutions. Further, the systems and methods disclosed herein may beembedded in mobile structures or vehicles using a wireless connectivity,such as through a 5G network.

In certain IoT system architectures, data processing may be performed ina large centralized environment by cloud computers or by fog or edgecomputing, where the sensors and network gateways may perform a part ofthe data processing and analytics. In this regard, according to examplesdisclosed herein, the systems and methods disclosed herein utilizingvirtual sensors may include different footprints on IoT layers.

A fog computing based architecture may present a layered approach whichmay insert monitoring, preprocessing, storage, and security layersbetween physical and transport layers. In this regard, processingcapabilities, data storage capacity, network bandwidth and/or latencyrequirements may need to be taken into account. Fog or edge computingsolutions may aim to process data near a data source, while movingapplications, services, data, computing power, and decision making awayfrom centralized nodes. In this regard, the system disclosed herein mayinclude pre-processing and data storage capacity that may reduce thedata that needs to be transferred to a transport layer. For example,limited key data may be exchanged, such as general data analytics, anoptical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) event table, workflow data, ora temperature in the case of a fire detection application. In thisregard, a hybrid configuration of the system disclosed herein may offercloud or edge computing functionality. Local processing orpre-processing using advanced technics such as artificial intelligencemay limit data exchanges for making decisions locally.

As some potential applications of the systems and methods disclosedherein may be dedicated to a single organization, the infrastructure ofthe system disclosed herein may be provisioned for a singleorganization. In this regard, the systems and methods disclosed hereinmay incorporate different models of cloud technologies, such as aprivate cloud, a public cloud, or a hybrid cloud.

The systems and methods disclosed herein may be integrated into a globalreal-time test, analysis and optimization solution, embedded in aspecified network. In the field of telecommunications, 5G wireless orenterprise networks, data from the virtual sensors or virtual instrumentprobes may be used as service and service test and activation data forplanning, provisioning, preventative maintenance, insurance andmaintenance, and network optimization.

According to examples disclosed herein, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may provide for the installation of IoT networks basedon optical reflectometry that may operate as an IoT based monitoringsystem for manipulating virtually mobile probes along a DUT, and alsoreconfigurable virtual OTDR probes or fiber optic virtual sensors fortemperature, strain, acoustic, vibration or third party intrusiondetection.

According to examples disclosed herein, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may be integrated in an application, and/or may beconnected to other IoT devices used for telecommunication or sensingapplications for managing an entire IoT system.

With respect to fiber network element integrity, assurance of fibernetwork elements may include more other aspects in addition toperformance monitoring and troubleshooting of a telecommunicationfunctionality. Performance of the underlying infrastructure (e.g.,including the fiber, the cable, and its environment) may also affect adesired telecom functionality, and may be included in monitoring andtroubleshooting equipment. For example, distributed strain measurementmay proactively locate some fiber breaks that may not be seen by lossmeasurements. In the manner, distributed acoustic measurement mayproactively locate damage sustained by fiber cable structures when workis completed nearby, or may also detect third party intrusion.

According to examples disclosed herein, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may provide for awareness of measurement sensorlocations (e.g., which may include virtual sensors as disclosed herein),for example, based on time-of-flight by reflectometry.

According to an example of implementation of the systems and methodsdisclosed herein, the systems and methods may be used to monitor a fibersection of a fiber cable deployed in a relatively harsh environment orsuspected to show some performance drifts such as fiber attenuationincrease or aging. First, the fiber section location may be set-up.Thereafter, different available options, such as fiber loss monitoring,fiber bending loss, fiber temperature monitoring, strain monitoring,and/or acoustic monitoring may be selected to detect voluntary orinvoluntary activities close to the fiber cable under monitoring (e.g.,the DUT as disclosed herein). Thereafter, virtual sensors may beconfigured and/or moved to this specific location. For example, certainthresholds may be defined to trigger alarms or perform preset actions.Some correlations may be identified by comparing optical loss increaseand temperature variation or other measurands such as strain, oracoustic or vibration signals. Measurement parameters such as durationor time windows, distance resolution, and others may be adjusted beforelaunch of the measurement.

According to another example of implementation of the systems andmethods disclosed herein, the systems and methods may include monitoringof the deployment of a fiber network. The different types of virtualsensors may be moved along the network following its construction toperform test, troubleshooting, and fiber characterization. Distributedfiber optic measurements may be combined with portable solutions toextend the capabilities in terms of virtual sensor types andperformances.

According to another example of implementation of the systems andmethods disclosed herein, the systems and methods may be used to performoptic distributed acoustic sensing for third party intrusion detection.In such an application, a mobile virtual sound detector may be locatedalong a fiber section close to a work area near the fiber cable (e.g.,the DUT as disclosed herein) to detect potential impact or damage on thefiber cable, or a water or gas pipe equipped with a fiber optic.

FIG. 1A illustrates an operational layout of a fiber optic virtualsensing system (hereinafter also referred to as “system 100”) inaccordance with an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 1A, the system 100 may include a virtual sensorgenerator 102 that is operatively connected to a device under test (DUT)104 to generate one or more virtual sensors 106 (illustrated as VS #1,VS #2, VS #3, . . . , VS #n) along the DUT 104. The virtual sensorgenerator 102 may also be denoted as a processing, monitoring, andvirtualization unit.

According to examples disclosed herein, the DUT 104 may include anoptical fiber.

A DUT interrogator 108 that is operatively connected to the DUT 104 maytransmit a stimulus optical signal into the DUT 104. The DUTinterrogator 108 may also be denoted as a distributed fiber-opticinterrogation unit. The DUT interrogator 108 may analyze reflected lightresulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal. Further, the DUTinterrogator 108 may determine, based on the analysis of the reflectedlight, an attribute of the DUT 104 sensed by the one or more virtualsensors 106.

An Internet of Things (IoT) interface 110 may be operatively connectedto an object 112 (or a plurality of objects) to transmit the attributeof the DUT 104 to the object 112. In this regard, an operation of theobject 112 may be controlled based on the transmitted attribute of theDUT 104. Further, the IoT interface 110 may be operatively connected tothe object 112 via an IoT upper level described with reference to FIG.2.

According to examples disclosed herein, the DUT interrogator 108 may beoperatively connected to the DUT 104 to analyze reflected lightresulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal by analyzingRayleigh scattering resulting from the transmitted stimulus opticalsignal.

According to examples disclosed herein, the DUT interrogator 108 may beoperatively connected to the DUT 104 to analyze reflected lightresulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal to measureinsertion loss of a fiber optic component disposed at a location alongthe DUT 104.

According to examples disclosed herein, the one or more virtual sensors106 may include a loss test sensor that includes an optical source and apower meter to measure event loss associated with the fiber opticcomponent.

According to examples disclosed herein, the one or more virtual sensors106 may include a fiber section optical loss sensor to measure opticalattenuation associated with a section of the DUT 104.

According to examples disclosed herein, the one or more virtual sensors106 may include a fiber section temperature sensor to measuretemperature associated with a section of the DUT 104.

According to examples disclosed herein, the one or more virtual sensors106 may include a fiber section strain sensor to measure strainassociated with a section of the DUT 104.

According to examples disclosed herein, the DUT interrogator 108 may beoperatively connected generally adjacent to a first end of the DUT 104.In this regard, as disclosed herein with reference to FIG. 7, anotherDUT interrogator may be operatively connected generally adjacent to asecond end of the DUT 104 that is generally opposite to the first end ofthe DUT 104 to transmit a further stimulus optical signal into the DUT104 in a direction from the second end of the DUT 104 towards the firstend of the DUT 104. The other DUT interrogator may analyze furtherreflected light resulting from the transmitted further stimulus opticalsignal. Further, the other DUT interrogator may determine, based on theanalysis of the further reflected light, another attribute of the DUT104 sensed by the one or more virtual sensors 106.

Operation of the system 100 is described in further detail withreference to FIGS. 1A-9.

Referring again to FIG. 1A, the system 100 may represent a physical unitthat is operatively connected to an end of the DUT 104. As disclosedherein, the virtual sensor generator 102 may be operatively connected tothe DUT 104 to generate one or more virtual sensors 106 (illustrated asVS #1, VS #2, VS #3, . . . , VS #n) along the DUT 104. In this regard,the creation of a virtual sensor along the fiber optic path (e.g., theDUT 104) connected to one or several virtual sensor generators opticallyconnected to the fiber network may be performed by defining the type ofvirtual sensor or the measurement feature associated with the virtualsensor. The point location or the fiber segment location of the virtualsensor may also be defined. Thereafter, the virtual sensor may beconfigured, and the DUT interrogator 108 may be launched. When definingthe virtual sensor location or moving the virtual sensor to a newlocation, the virtual sensor generator 102 may update a list ofavailable virtual sensor types or measurement types.

Referring next to FIG. 1B, FIG. 1B illustrates further details of anoperational layout of the system 100 in accordance with an example ofthe present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1B, according to examples disclosed herein, the system100 may include one or more DUT interrogators at 200 (similar to DUTinterrogator 108) for distributed fiber optic sensing, and one or moreDUT interrogators at 202 (similar to DUT interrogator 108) fornon-distributed fiber optic sensing, which the DUT interrogators may bephysically connected to a fiber network. The DUT interrogator at 200 mayrepresent a distributed fiber-optic sensing system that measuresmeaurands by means of optical fibers functioning as linear sensors. Forexample, distributed fiber-optic temperature sensing systems (DTS) mayinclude devices that measure temperature by means of optical fibersfunctioning as linear sensors. In this case, temperatures may berecorded along the optical sensor cable, thus not at points, but as acontinuous profile. In the same manner, distributed optical loss usingOTDR techniques may include devices that obtain the loss by means ofRayleigh backscattering, and fiber losses may be recorded along theoptical fiber, thus not at points, but as a continuous profile (e.g.,OTDR trace).

The DUT interrogator at 202 may represent a non-distributed fiber-opticsensor or units that include point solutions that may not give anycontinuous profile. For example, a power meter connected to an opticalfiber end may generate the level of optical power measured at the end ofthe optical fiber (e.g., single-point).

With respect to the DUT interrogator at 200, in the distributedfiber-optic sensing domain, the instrument connected to the opticalfiber may be referred to as an interrogator. However, in atelecommunications domain for distributed loss measured, the instrumentconnected to the optical fiber may be referred to at a fiber monitoringsystem or an optical test unit (OUT) that includes an OTDR plug-in unit.

In a telecommunications domain, the virtual sensors 106 may be referredto as virtual fiber-optic measurement instruments, such as a virtualOTDR, virtual power meter, virtual loss test set, etc.

The virtual sensor data at 204 may be generated by the virtual sensors106. The virtual sensors 106 may be defined based on the distributedfiber-optic data at 206. Further, the virtual sensors 106 may also bedefined based on other data (e.g., the non-distributed fiber-optic dataat 208) from non-distributed fiber-optic (e.g., real) sensors. Forexample, the distributed fiber-optic data at 206 may be the distributedtemperature data along an optical fiber, plus the distributedfiber-optic loss data from a fiber monitoring system. Thenon-distributed fiber-optic data at 208 may be the power measurement(e.g., point measurement, non-distributed) data from a real (e.g.,non-virtual) power meter connected to one end of an optical fiber.

The virtual sensor generator 102 may also be referred to as avirtualization engine to generate the virtual sensors 106 as disclosedherein. The virtual sensor generator 102 may utilize the distributedfiber-optic data at 206 and the non-distributed fiber-optic data at 208to define the virtual sensors 106. For example, the distributedfiber-optic data at 206 may include data such as acquisition samples andassociated results from measurement made on these data, and recordedalong the optical fiber, and the non-distributed fiber-optic data at 208may include data from point measurements if any.

Referring next to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 illustrates a linear sensor arrayconfiguration where multiple independent measuring sensors 200 (whichmay include the virtual sensors 106) are deployed in a geometric pattern202 to cover a full length of a sensing path to illustrate operation ofthe system 100 in accordance with an example of the present disclosure.In this regard, sensing points 204 may be deployed at fixed locations.The sensors in FIG. 2 are illustrated as S1 #1, S1 #2, . . . , S1 #n.Communication between the sensors 200 may be implemented via aninterface, such as a Cloud interface 206.

As shown in FIG. 2, using a sensor array may add new dimensions to anobservation with respect to the object 112, which may thus increaseperformance and/or capabilities of the system 100. A linear array mayalso be spatially deployed in three-dimensional geometric patterns tomonitor multidimensional structures.

For the example of FIG. 2 based on an IoT structure, the layer includingthe sensing points 204 may represent a perception layer that mayperceive physical properties of things that are part of the IoT. Thelayer including the sensors 200 may represent a network layer that isresponsible for processing received data from the perception layer.Additionally, the network layer may transmit data to an applicationlayer (e.g., the IoT upper level) through various network technologies,such as wireless or wired networks, and local area networks (LAN). Thetransport layer may transfer sensor data from the perception layer to aprocessing layer, and vice versa through networks. In some examples, thedata processing may be performed in a relatively large centralizedmanner by cloud computers, or by fog or edge computing, where sensorsand network gateways perform a part of the data processing andanalytics. In this regard, a fog architecture may represent a layeredapproach that inserts monitoring, preprocessing, storage, and securitylayers between physical and transport layers.

Referring next to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 illustrates a simplified architectureof the DUT interrogator 108 of the system 100 in accordance with anexample of the present disclosure. The DUT interrogator 108 may beutilized for test and monitoring of the DUT xxx, or for distributedfiber-optic sensing using one or multiple physical phenomena such asRayleigh scattering, Brillouin scattering, or Raman scattering. In thisregard, under the general aspect of fiber optic reflectometry, severalphysical implementation options may exist based on differenttechnologies from direct detection to coherent detection, from timedomain to frequency domain, from power measurement to photon countingtechniques, from pulse to correlation sequence modulation, and possiblecombinations of these. In this regard, irrespective of the technologyused, the output may include a distributed fiber optic measurement withmeasurement data distributed all along the fiber, and utilized asdisclosed herein.

For the DUT interrogator 108, an optical stimulus may be sent by theoptical source 300 (e.g., a laser) coupled by an optical coupling unit302 to the DUT 104. A signal received back at the input/output port ofthe DUT interrogator 108 may be coupled back to an optical receiver 304through the optical coupling unit 302. The optical coupling unit 302 mayembed optical switches to connect to several DUTs. Other components suchas for pre-amplification, analog to digital conversion, signalprocessing, data processing and storage, interfaces, power supplies, andcommunication links 306 may be coupled into block 308.

In telecommunications or in other sensing domains, the system 100 mayutilize a plurality of wavelengths to enable the aforementionedmeasurement principles. In this regard, several sources with differentwavelengths may be utilized, and several wavelengths may be analyzed ona receiver side. In telecommunications, a domain of interest may includethe optical properties of fiber link components such as optical fibersections, and optical connections and components that affecttransmission system performance. In this regard, an OTDR may be utilizedto access optical fiber loss by measuring, for example, Rayleighbackscattering. In this case, the DUT 104 may be considered as atransducer that converts the backscatter signal to optical loss (e.g.,parameter of interest) distributed along the DUT 104. In a similarmanner, in distributed temperature, strain, or acoustic measurements,the optical fiber may still be the transducer, but may utilize Raman,Brillouin, or even Rayleigh backscattering.

FIG. 4 illustrates deployment of virtual sensors 106 to illustrateoperation of the system 100 in accordance with an example of the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 4, according to examples disclosed herein, the virtualsensor generator 102 may be operatively connected to the DUT 104 togenerate the one or more virtual sensors 106 along the DUT 104 bygenerating the one or more virtual sensors 106 (e.g., VS #1 and VS #2)to sense a property of the DUT 104 along a specified length of the DUT104 that is less than an entire length of the DUT 104.

According to examples disclosed herein, the virtual sensor generator 102may be operatively connected to the DUT 104 to generate the one or morevirtual sensors 106 along the DUT 104 by generating the one or morevirtual sensors 106 (e.g., VS #3) to sense a property of the DUT 104along an entire length of the DUT 104.

According to examples disclosed herein, the virtual sensor generator 102may be operatively connected to the DUT 104 to generate the one or morevirtual sensors 106 along the DUT 104 by generating the one or morevirtual sensors 106 (e.g., VS #4) to sense a property of the DUT 104 ata point along the DUT 104.

According to examples disclosed herein, the virtual sensor generator 102may be operatively connected to the DUT 104 to move an existing virtualsensor from a first location to a second location along the DUT 104. Forexample, assuming that virtual sensor VS #1 is allocated to cover asection of the DUT 104 at a current location as shown in FIG. 4, VS #1may be moved to cover a section that includes virtual sensor VS #4 tocover a broader range of the DUT 104 at the location of virtual sensorVS #4.

According to examples disclosed herein, the virtual sensor generator 102may be operatively connected to the DUT 104 to remove an existingvirtual sensor. For example, any of the virtual sensors shown in FIG. 4may be removed.

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate application in a telecommunications domain toillustrate operation of the system 100 in accordance with an example ofthe present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5A, according to an example, the DUT interrogator 108may be based on Rayleigh optical time domain reflectometry. In thetelecommunications domain, parameters of interest may include, forexample, the DUT distributed loss and return loss. In this domain, someof the virtual sensors 106 may be defined to obtain measurement data tobe used to determine DUT characterization parameters, and other virtualsensors may be used to trigger alarms. For example, virtual sensors VS#1 and VS #5 may be used to measure the total loss of the DUT 104, whichmay also be denoted as a link budget loss. For example, VS #1 may beconfigured as a point loss meter located at the near end of the DUT 104,while VS #5 may be located at the far end. Combining the measurementsfrom both VS #1 and VS #2 may build a link budget loss meter with thebudget loss of the link calculated from the difference of these tworesults (e.g., near end loss minus far end loss).

The virtual sensor VS #2 may be configured and used to measure theinsertion loss or the reflectance of a fiber optic component 500, suchas a fiber splice, an optical connector, an optical fiber splitter, orother inline optical components. For example, referring to FIG. 5C,virtual sensor VS #2 may be seen as a virtual optical loss test set(OLTS) connecting an optical source on one side and a power meter on theother side, and measuring the event loss by the difference of opticalpower injected on one side and power received on the other side, in asimilar manner as a physical (e.g., non-virtual) OLTS. This virtual OLTSlocated at the splice location may be named as a “splice meter” thatdelivers splice insertion loss (IL) and reflectance (R). For networkconstruction, a technician may select this virtual “splicemeter” (IL/R).For example, as shown in FIG. 5B, the real side may be considered withthe insertion loss, and the reflectance measured with an OTDR may beconsidered using the attenuation slope before and after the event toestimate the vertical deviation at event location to estimate the eventinsertion loss. On the virtual side, the insertion loss may be measuredusing the same data points and aforementioned techniques, but seen asmeasured using a source and a powermeter. For maintenance andtroubleshooting, monitoring probes may be added along the network onspecific events, and may launch predictive maintenance on a specifiedarea (e.g., fiber section, connection, etc.). In a monitoring mode,automated or artificial intelligence processes may be used to providealarms, and root cause analysis.

The virtual sensor VS #4 may be configured to measure the loss of afiber section, for example, to detect and monitor a possible degradationof the optical attenuation (e.g., due to aging). The virtual sensingloss meter may utilize the distributed measurement data of this fibersection using a real OTDR measurement to determine the loss, which maybe seen as a virtual loss test set connected on this section.

The virtual sensor VS #5 may be configured to monitor the amplitude ofan end of a fiber reflective device installed for DUT monitoringpurpose.

The virtual sensor VS #3 that covers the overall length of the DUT 104may access other measurements such as link optical return loss, or thecomplete fiber characterization including link events table andreflectometric trace. This configuration of the virtual sensor VS #3 maybe similar to that of a physical sensor because the virtual sensor VS #3may use all of the data set from the real instrument.

Other capabilities of an OTDR such as optical power source mode maytranslate as a virtual sensor that may be associated to the opticalsource of system 100 to build a continuous or modulated wave OLTS. Inthis regard, a plurality of virtual movable tools may be implemented,such as a virtual OTDR that may be moved along the DUT 104.

As disclosed herein, the system 100 may combine multiple wavelengthsbackscatter analysis to detect wavelength sensitive phenomena impactingDUT integrity. In this regard, the system 100 may also utilize othersensing techniques such as dual source Raman distributed fiber sensing,or strain and acoustic sensing.

The system 100 may utilize spatial, time, or optical frequencymultiplexing to support concurrent operations such as out-of-bandmonitoring or in-service monitoring in the presence data traffic on thesame DUT. The spatial multiplexing may use a witness fiber available inthe cable or use an available core of a multicore fiber. Time divisionmultiplexing may use different time windows for the differentmeasurements.

FIG. 6 illustrates different types of sensors to illustrate operation ofthe system 100 in accordance with an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 6, the virtual sensors described in FIG. 6 may combineseveral types of sensors (e.g., optical loss sensors, temperaturesensors, strain sensors, etc.). A combination of multiple parameters ofinterest may add new dimensions to the observation. As an example, theaccurate distance localization of the fiber events in OTDR mode mayfacilitate other sensing modes to set-up virtual sensing sections. Inthis regard, the virtual sensors 106 may be combined to other virtual orreal sensors as shown in FIG. 6. For example, a list of things mayinclude between others virtual optical sensors 600, actuators 602, andother virtual 604 and non-virtual (real) 606 devices. In this regard,additional devices (e.g., “things” with respect to IoTs) may be added interms of devices, sensors, and actuators.

For the system 100, since virtual IoTs are based on the use of the DUT104 which may be passive (e.g., without any electronics, embeddedsoftware, or a power supply), the system 100 may be insensitive toelectric fields, and may not be limited by the temperature operatingrange of electronic devices or batteries. Thus, without the need for atechnician to physically go to a site, the virtual sensors 106 may bemoved to measure a different point or area along the DUT 104. Thiscapability may be beneficial for a sensing fiber environment that isnon-accessible, for example, due to distance, security, limited access,safety, or other environmental conditions.

The DUT 104 may function as a linear array of transducers for severalpotential parameters of interest. For example, the DUT 104 may functionas thousands or tens of thousands of transducers distributed along itslength to offer a high scalability and rich possibility to deployvirtual sensors.

The DUT interrogator 108 may be shared between multiple virtual sensors106 (as well as virtual IoTs). In this regard, virtual sensor softwareupdates may be performed at the interrogator level, and apply to allvirtual sensor networks (and virtual IoT networks). In this manner, eachvirtual IoT may be reconfigured by the DUT interrogator 108. Thus, newvirtual sensors and/or virtual IoTs may be added at any time atdifferent points or on different sections of the DUT 104, even onalready measured areas.

FIG. 7 illustrates an application on a telecommunications network thatinterconnects multiple equipment by fiber links to illustrate operationof the system 100 in accordance with an example of the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 7, more than one instance of the DUT interrogator 108may be connected to a DUT (or a plurality of DUTs) in order to extendcapabilities such as both end measurement of a DUT 104. In a similarmanner, the multiple instantiations of the DUT interrogator 108 may beused in higher complexity fiber optic network topologies, such aspassive optical networks, or wavelength division multiplexing networks.

For example, FIG. 7 shows an application on a telecommunications networkthat interconnects multiple equipment by fiber links. DUT interrogatorsat 700, 702, and 704 may be optically connected to a network fiber tobuild up a new range of virtual devices 706, 708, 710, 712, and 714. Anyfiber section in optical continuity to another may benefit from thesystem 100.

FIG. 8A illustrates a physical and hardware approach, and FIG. 8Billustrates an application oriented approach to illustrate operation ofthe system 100 in accordance with an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIGS. 8A and 8B, masking the DUT interrogator 108 connectedphysically to the DUTs may provide another example of operation of thesystem 100. In FIGS. 8A and 8B, the virtual devices or virtualinstruments may be deployed, moved, and/or configured to cover multipleapplications. These virtual units may be used both intelecommunications, or sensing applications separately or together. Forexample, in FIG. 8A, the DUT interrogators may be disposed at 800 and802, and the virtual sensors illustrated as IoT-V1 may be deployed,moved, and/or configured to cover multiple applications. FIG. 8Bsimilarly shows virtual sensors illustrated as IoT-V1 that may bedeployed, moved, and/or configured to cover multiple applications.

In the telecommunications domain, these mobile virtual tool kits mayinclude virtual mobile standalone instruments, features, and systems,such as OTDR or loss test set or on demand insertion loss meter, faultlocators, as well as monitoring systems that may be installedtemporarily or permanently on the network. For maintenance andtroubleshooting purposes, these tool kits may be activated on demandfrom mobile platforms such as smartphones. Monitoring applications mayextract, compress, filter, correlate, distribute data, and provideusable measurements for quick time detection, analysis and reporting, orcollect data overtime to provide offline analysis of historicalinformation.

FIG. 9 illustrates a graphical user interface display to generatevirtual sensors to illustrate operation of the system 100 in accordancewith an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 9, an interface 900 may be provided to facilitateselection of available tools, and measurement or sensing capabilities ata point along the DUT 104. For example, a user may point at a locationof the DUT 104 as shown at 902, and the user may be provided an optionto select available tools (e.g., virtual sensors), and measurement orsensing capabilities implemented by the system 100.

FIG. 10 illustrate a flowchart of a method 1000 for fiber optic virtualsensing, according to examples. The method 1000 may be implemented onthe system 100 described above with reference to FIGS. 1A-9 by way ofexample and not limitation. The method 1000 may be practiced in othersystems.

Referring to FIGS. 1A-10, and particularly FIG. 10, at block 1002, themethod 1000 may include generating one or more virtual sensors 106 alonga DUT 104.

At block 1004, the method 1000 may include transmitting a stimulusoptical signal into the DUT 104.

At block 1006, the method 1000 may include analyzing reflected lightresulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal.

At block 1008, the method 1000 may include determining, based on theanalysis of the reflected light, an attribute of the DUT 104 sensed bythe one or more virtual sensors 106.

FIG. 11 shows a computer system 1100 that may be used with the examplesdescribed herein. The computer system may represent a platform thatincludes components that may be in a server or another computer system.The computer system 1100 may be used as part of a platform forcontrollers of the system 100 (generally designated controller in FIG.11). The computer system 1100 may execute, by a processor (e.g., asingle or multiple processors) or other hardware processing circuit, themethods, functions and other processes described herein. These methods,functions and other processes may be embodied as machine readableinstructions stored on a computer readable medium, which may benon-transitory, such as hardware storage devices (e.g., RAM (randomaccess memory), ROM (read only memory), EPROM (erasable, programmableROM), EEPROM (electrically erasable, programmable ROM), hard drives, andflash memory).

The computer system 1100 may include a processor 1102 that may implementor execute machine readable instructions performing some or all of themethods, functions and other processes described herein. Commands anddata from the processor 1102 may be communicated over a communicationbus 1104. The computer system may also include a main memory 1106, suchas a random access memory (RAM), where the machine readable instructionsand data for the processor 1102 may reside during runtime, and asecondary data storage 1108, which may be non-volatile and storesmachine readable instructions and data. The memory and data storage areexamples of computer readable mediums. The main memory 1106 may includethe controller (e.g., for the system 100) including machine readableinstructions residing in the main memory 1106 during runtime andexecuted by the processor 1102.

The computer system 1100 may include an input/output (I/O) device 1110,such as a keyboard, a mouse, a display, etc. The computer system mayinclude a network interface 1112 for connecting to a network. Otherknown electronic components may be added or substituted in the computersystem.

The processor 1102 may be designated as a hardware processor. Theprocessor 1102 may execute operations associated with various componentsof the system 100. For example, the processor 1102 may executeoperations associated with the controller (e.g., for the system 100),etc.

What has been described and illustrated herein is an example along withsome of its variations. The terms, descriptions and figures used hereinare set forth by way of illustration only and are not meant aslimitations. Many variations are possible within the spirit and scope ofthe subject matter, which is intended to be defined by the followingclaims—and their equivalents—in which all terms are meant in theirbroadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A fiber optic virtual sensing system comprising:a virtual sensor generator, operatively connected to a device under test(DUT), to generate at least one virtual sensor along the DUT bygenerating at least one first virtual sensor to sense a property of theDUT along a specified length of the DUT that is less than an entirelength of the DUT, and generating at least one second virtual sensor tosense another property of the DUT along the entire length of the DUT, orgenerating the at least one second virtual sensor to sense the otherproperty of the DUT at a point along the DUT; and a DUT interrogator,operatively connected to the OUT, to: generate, based on the at leastone first virtual sensor and the at least one second virtual sensor, aplurality of virtual movable tools that include a virtual optical timedomain reflectometer (OTDR) that includes an optical source and a powermeter to measure an event loss of a fiber optic component disposed at alocation along the DUT, wherein the OTDR is movable along the DUT;transmit a stimulus optical signal into the DUT; analyze reflected lightresulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal; and determine,based on the analysis of the reflected light, an attribute of the DUTsensed by the at least one virtual sensor.
 2. The fiber optic virtualsensing system according to claim 1, wherein the DUT includes an opticalfiber.
 3. The fiber optic virtual sensing system according to claim 1,further comprising: an Internet of Things (IoT) interface, operativelyconnected to an object, to transmit the attribute of the DUT to theobject, wherein an operation of the object is to be controlled based onthe transmitted attribute of the DUT.
 4. The fiber optic virtual sensingsystem according to claim 1, wherein the virtual sensor generator isoperatively connected to the DUT to move an existing virtual sensor froma first location to a second location along the DUT.
 5. The fiber opticvirtual sensing system according to claim 1, wherein the virtual sensorgenerator is operatively connected to the DUT to remove an existingvirtual sensor.
 6. The fiber optic virtual sensing system according toclaim 1, wherein the at least one virtual sensor includes a fibersection optical loss sensor to measure optical attenuation associatedwith a section of the DUT.
 7. The fiber optic virtual sensing systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual sensor includes afiber section temperature sensor to measure temperature associated witha section of the DUT.
 8. The fiber optic virtual sensing systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual sensor includes afiber section strain sensor to measure strain associated with a sectionof the DUT.
 9. The fiber optic virtual sensing system according to claim1, wherein the DUT interrogator is operatively connected generallyadjacent to a first end of the DUT, further comprising: another DUTinterrogator, operatively connected generally adjacent to a second endof the DUT that is generally opposite to the first end of the DUT, to:transmit a further stimulus optical signal into the DUT in a directionfrom the second end of the DUT towards the first end of the DUT; analyzefurther reflected light resulting from the transmitted further stimulusoptical signal; and determine, based on the analysis of the furtherreflected light, another attribute of the DUT sensed by the at least onevirtual sensor.
 10. A fiber optic virtual sensing system comprising: avirtual sensor generator, operatively connected to a device under test(DUT), to generate at least one first virtual sensor and at least onesecond virtual sensor along the DUT, and move at least one existingvirtual sensor from a first location to a second location along the DUT;and a DUT interrogator, operatively connected to the DUT, to: generate,based on the at least one first virtual sensor and the at least onesecond virtual sensor, a plurality of virtual movable tools that includea virtual optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) that includes anoptical source and a power meter to measure an insertion loss of a fiberoptic component disposed at a location along the DUT, wherein the OTDRis movable along the DUT; transmit a stimulus optical signal into theDUT; analyze reflected light resulting from the transmitted stimulusoptical signal; and determine, based on the analysis of the reflectedlight, an attribute of the DUT sensed by the generated at least onefirst virtual sensor, the generated at least one second virtual sensor,and the moved at least one existing virtual sensor.
 11. A fiber opticvirtual sensing method comprising: moving a plurality of existingvirtual sensors from a first location to a second location along adevice under test (DUT), wherein the plurality of existing virtualsensors includes a first virtual sensor and a second virtual sensor;generating, by a DUT interrogator that is operatively connected to theDUT, based on the first virtual sensor and the second virtual sensor, aplurality of virtual movable tools that include a virtual optical timedomain reflectometer (OTDR) that includes an optical source and a powermeter to measure a link budget loss to determine budget loss of the DUT,wherein the OTDR is movable along the DUT; transmitting a stimulusoptical signal into the DUT; analyzing reflected light resulting fromthe transmitted stimulus optical signal; and determining, based on theanalysis of the reflected light, an attribute of the DUT sensed by themoved plurality of existing virtual sensors by combining measurementsfrom the plurality of existing virtual sensors.
 12. The fiber opticvirtual sensing method according to claim 11, wherein the DUT includes afiber optic cable.
 13. The fiber optic virtual sensing method accordingto claim 11, further comprising: transmitting the attribute of the DUTto an Internet of Things (IoT) object; and controlling, based on thetransmitted attribute of the DUT, an operation of the object.
 14. Thefiber optic virtual sensing system according to claim 1, wherein thevirtual sensor generator is operatively connected to the DUT to generatethe at least one virtual sensor along the DUT by: utilizing distributedfiber-optic data from along the DUT and non-distributed fiber-optic datathat includes a point measurement that includes a power measurement froma device that includes a physical power meter connected to the DUT togenerate the at least one virtual sensor.
 15. The fiber optic virtualsensing system according to claim 1, wherein the virtual sensorgenerator is operatively connected to the DUT to generate the at leastone virtual sensor along the DUT by: generating the at least one firstvirtual sensor to overlap a length of the DUT monitored by the at leastone second virtual sensor.
 16. The fiber optic virtual sensing systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the DUT includes the optical fiber that isdeployed in a three-dimensional geometric pattern.